The present invention relates to the surgical lighting, table, and accessory arts, and, more particularly, to a surgical lighting control system providing multiple user interfaces, centralized graphical control for various functions, advanced camera detection/signal routing, and closed loop control of lamp intensity. It finds particular application in conjunction with providing a comprehensive control system for a surgical operating room (OR) theater and will be described with particular reference thereto. It is to be appreciated, however, that the invention also finds application in other multi-task control applications and is not limited to the aforementioned operating room environment.
Typically, in an operating room setting, large, high lumen output lightheads are used to illuminate the surgical site. Often, video cameras, are attached to the lightheads for documenting the surgery, and to assist the surgeon in achieving more optimal views. Some systems offer no control of the camera to personnel in the OR. Without physically moving the camera/lighthead, such systems only offer a single camera orientation and zoom factor. Other systems offer control of the camera and lightheads to personnel in the OR, but not to the surgeon. The surgeon must request that a non-sterile circulating nurse adjust the lighting controls or the camera controls when needed.
Existing systems do not monitor power delivered to the bulbs within the lighthead. This results in light intensity fluctuations due to bulb deviations, voltage fluctuations, and line resistences. Variances in the lamp power can reduce light intensity with potential adverse effects on the surgical procedure or increase light intensity causing a reduced lamp life.
Additionally, most existing systems do not offer centralized control. Accordingly, the circulating nurse staff must move first to one panel to operate light intensity controls, then to another location to rotate the camera, etc. This leads to confusion when operating the systems, and clutter in the OR due to additional user interface locations.
In systems using a centralized control, hardware updates/upgrades are difficult because the software of the control often cannot be adapted to recognize and operate with the new equipment. It would be desirable to provide a surgical lighting and video control system with software adapted to interact with new equipment through simple software parameter updates or settings.
The present invention provides new and improved methods and apparatus that overcome the above referenced problems and others to provide better, more comprehensive control of lighting and video systems in surgical operating room applications.